S K SALIM

THE MUSLIM WITH A HINDU HEART

Yesterday was Cycle day - not officially but for me. If you have been reading my posts, then you know, I have gone through some health difficulties and gone through various treatments without any significant result. Of late, I have been trying to understand my body myself and trying to become fit. One part of the problem is the knee and I feel if I do some knee exercise such as cycling, then I feel better. The pain in the knee circulates to the right side chest and I have enough experience to write a post on it, but for now, I will focus on S K SALIM, the man who repaired my cycle yesterday.

My cycle was lying like a orphan in the apartment parking area - we have some nice kids, who took everything out of the tube, to help it lie on the ground - they are my son's friend. They even did not spare my son's cycle in Covid times - threw away his seat , the rod on which the seat is fixed and the back mudguard. They know how to fool the CC TV, and their parents have deaf ears. So repairing them is the only option - their stupidity wins over friendship. Since the shop is around 2 km away from my home, I first went and checked with S K SALIM if he can repair if I bring the cycle walking all the distance as it was not in a condition to ride. After he agreed, I reached their having a nice walk at 12 pm, and sat there when he was doing the work.

See two puppies at his back ? SALIM was very worried for them feeding them some biscuits - there were actually three of them. His shop being on the road side, these puppies were going to the road and SALIM was getting up and going behind them and shouting at them to come back. It was delaying my work, but I got curious to ask him, why he is worried about them so much and what he told was quite a heart touching story. The weather being harsh over last couple of months, the mother of these puppies took shelter under his shop when it was raining heavily. He could not see her being starved and started to share his food and then they become friendly. The dog became loyal and guarded his shop and then gave birth to these puppies who are now his friends. Over the time, there are few more people who have been attached to these puppies and bring food for them. Here is one such gentleman. He brings food from home when he finishes his lunch and comes for a smoking.

The story took a twist when he brought the food. Another gentle male dog appears and guides these puppies near the food. SALIM started shouting at this male dog, why he is taking the puppies out. But when he saw this man, he figured out that, the dog knew where the food is and that is why taking them near the food. Watching all this I could not resist and asked about this dog. SALIM said, he does not know, if he is their father 😀 or not, but he loves these puppies more than their mother. And the puppies were also behaving the same, adoring more than like their mother.

After some time the mother of these puppies arrive and then this male dog is relaxed taking a nap. And SALIM is relived of his duty to look after them - so as these guys enjoying their smoke behind his shop. SALIM also feeds the road side cows - he brings the left over vegetables and they know when to come for it.

SALIM's wife called him for lunch and that is when he hurried to wrap up the work. Sitting on a small bench, I was enjoying this highly entertaining real life movie. When I paid him using UPI, I came to know his name - S K SALIM - a Muslim guy.

It touched my emotions deep inside relating to my life - a day before, my daughter was asking why all the Muslim people are very cruel. It did surprise me why she was asking this and I tried to go to the background. She said, she spoke to one of her friend and they went to a mutton shop where a Muslim person was killing the goats and cutting them. When she asked her father, he told, only Muslims can do that because they are borne with that cruelty. They even eat beef, the very cow which we worship. So they are the merciless people who do these job. I got really upset hearing this.

This is not the religion I want to teach my kids. If a religion teaches against another violating human values, then I am not with that religion. We are borne to a particular religion, which has been practiced over ages. I am in for all good things, but I don't want to compare that to another for the sake of differentiating the bad things. After all, we all carry the same blood - their blood group is not very different to ours.

Could S K SALIM be cruel ? merciless ? I told this real life story to my daughter after coming back and explained her - there are certain people who differentiates between religion to get some benefit from it - but that does not mean they are right. We hear lot of news about terrorism being promoted by so called religious leaders in various parts of this world - who does it benefit ? At the end, it kills more innocent people only. Imagine we had a world without all these nonsense preaching and working for a global peaceful home - we have so many things to deal. The pollution, global warming, increasing cancer cases to name a few. If every religion would teach and guide their people to fight with these issues as a single world, I am sure, we will have a better place to live in the universe.

We have few places in my state, where Muslims celebrate all Hindu ceremonies. There are some places where both the religions celebrate each other's functions - they even eat together - the menu is suitable for both. Did any religion taught them that ? No, its the humanity which has taken over religion there - working towards peace, friendship, togetherness. I teach the same to my kids - learn all good things from any religion you can - the religion did not made humanity - its the humanity that made the religion. I am sure, every religion did not have a place for hate originally. They must have been introduced over time.

Back to the cycle day - we went to repair my son's cycle in the afternoon. Quite a bit of fun there.

He had to ride the cycle for 2 miles as the shop is a bit far. I gave him company riding my two wheeler. On his way, his tyre burst. He was angry, desperate and frustrated - Oh GOD why so much difficulty - but I was laughing. These are the real life difficulties they need to now learn. I told him walk a mile with the cycle and went to buy a headphone and mic connector (Quite a story there) - in between my wife called and asked me where is he - I told he is on his way and I left him alone. She started shouting at me, but I just cut the phone and did not pick up again.....He has to face a lot of these to deal with these situations in life.

During our stay there, the innovative idea of the shop owner to light the place was a real fun. I would leave the sequence of pictures to you for a good laugh, but necessity teaches us everything.